Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Kuo: Next Year's Upgrade to 12GB RAM Will Be Limited to iPhone 17 Pro Max

arc of the universe said:
i like the way you phrase it. its largely true.

i have always used a food analogy about RAM & processor speed.

RAM is the amount of food you can put in your mouth at one time. a large size mouth can fit alot more food than a small size mouth.
Processor speed is how quickly your jaws are chomping up and down on that food.

that is the point of why LLM need alot of RAM. LLM apparently benefit from working on a large amount of data at the same time.
Click to expand...
Nice explanation.
I can understand that being able to process On-device AI the more RAM you have the faster you get answers or get things done. But, I don't think that mobiles can create complex illustrations on device (yet). As Apple's way to to collaborate with Open AI, iPhone is gonna be more or like a medium to make it easier for users to get things done easily than direct interact with ChatGPT. So, why does it need to to be so difficult for Apple to give access to Apple Intelligence across devices which are 5 years old and younger? It will be a scandal if "AI" is not available for devices Apple still sell today. I read that minimum RAM for a Mac should be 16GB to use Apple AI, and they are still selling MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM.

Either Apple will get a place in the Race of AI or they will just fall because of greed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arc of the universe
lewchenko said:
Heard this a lot but it’s not exactly true. Apple would have you believe that their memory is special, sprinkled with pixie dust .. but it’s not.

It’s all about how aggressive the OS pages your apps & stuff in memory to disk / storage & how they are recovered. This is noticed most say when you go back to a safari tab , and it has to reload the page. Android has its fair share of memory management issues too (Samsung is notorious for being too aggressive on app paging).

But nobody can deny the benefits of having more ram. Apple has hidden this spec from customers so they don’t have to compete with it , and ultimately give you less for your $.

Also , Large language AI models take up the same amount of space on both Apple and Android phones. A 3GB model will likely run say on the Pixel 9 Pro with its 16GB memory, but probably not on an iPhone with 8GB as not enough left.

And as iPhone 15 users will find out, … not enough RAM to run any local AI.

I doubt an 8GB phone will age well (AI in 4-5?years for example), and that is disappointing considering their Android competitors are now offering 16GB for the same or less money.
Click to expand...
Their RAM doesn't have to be special. The OS itself is just more efficient. A lot of Android fans would tell you that even.
 
Android phones, in general, need much more RAM due to the way that Android itself handles memory cleanup. That's why on the iPhone, up till now they could get away with far smaller amounts of RAM. But the addition of Apple Intelligence does mean we will need more RAM, and that's why the iPhone 16, 16 Pro and upcoming SE 4 models will get at least 8 GB of RAM.

I think the major reason why only the iPhone 17 Pro Max gets 12 GB of RAM is that otherwise, the die size of the SoC would not fit inside the case of the phone itself without sacrificing battery life per charge. Once TSMC (or even Samsung) offers 2 to 1.5 nm fab process, then the SoC size will be small enough that even the regular iPhone 17 could accommodate it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: citysnaps
ThailandToo said:
Believe the Apple marketing hype. Tim plays AAPL so he can make $$$$$$$$$$$$ and that’s why none of the iPhones except iPhone 15 Pro and newer will even run Apple Intelligence. Apple knows how to milk money cows.
Click to expand...
And your point is a willing set of customers to throw their money at Tim. I know many get cognitive dissonance over that, but how does that relate to the iPhone 17 getting 12 gig?
 
  • Like
Reactions: citysnaps
N69AP said:
Differentiating the Pro models this way doesn't motivate me to spend more on a Pro Max. It means I would either settle for the cheaper iPhone 17 or not upgrade at all.
Click to expand...
Agree 100%. Apple’s recent ”Pro” = “bigger & bulkier” design language is a mistake that has motivated me to trade down to smaller and cheaper devices when I am willing and ready to pay more to have pro features in a small form factor. I hope they correct in this next product upgrade cycle. The 13” M4 iPad Pro gives me hope that a shift back to design-led engineering is in the works.
 
  • Like
Reactions: N69AP
heretiq said:
Agree 100%. Apple’s recent ”Pro” = “bigger & bulkier” design language is a mistake that has motivated me to trade down to smaller and cheaper devices when I am willing and ready to pay more to have pro features in a small form factor. I hope they correct in this next product upgrade cycle. The 13” M4 iPad Pro gives me hope that a shift back to design-led engineering is in the works.
Click to expand...
We had design-led engineering and it got us laptops with too much heat and too few ports. I am glad we are in a more functional phase now where the prod devices are faster and have plenty of ports and plenty of battery. The Air is still there for the thin, light, and limited ports needs.
 
coolfactor said:
Please do tell us three things you're unable to do your phone today due to insufficient RAM.

We're waiting.

Meanwhile, Apple has been smart to not be overzealous with too much RAM headroom. Apps would suck it up like sponges and it would be no better. Having a lower headroom forces developers to optimize apps.
Click to expand...

I’m not sure I buy this argument anymore, sounds like something leftover from the 2000’s.

Using this logic we could say that clothes manufacturers should only make size 28 waist pants for men, as it would force everyone to lose weight and fit into them.

I’m sure Apple has ways to make sure developers keep their apps optimized no matter how much ram Apple adds.

Over the ten plus years I’ve used iPhones low ram has been almost a constant issue, and every time they upped the ram was the years we say the big performance gains. The iPhone 6 series was famous for its sluggish performance and constant app/safari tab reloads due to them sticking with 1gb. When the 6S came out with double the ram at 2gb it was a massive performance improvement. You could test this once the phones were jailbroken, the 6 was always maxed out and suffering from lag, the 6S always had ram to spare and was lightning quick in comparison.

Fast forward to recent years, and the 14 pro max was notorious for not being able to handle simple tasks such as switching to the camera app and taking a picture or a short video without all your other open apps having to reload when you went back to them. It was bad, I even lost a bunch of comments I had written up here many times if I left Safari real quick to check another app. Such a “pro” experience!

The 15 pro’s are better with 8gb, but I still get lots of app reloads after taking video which is annoying. And now with all this ai stuff incoming it looks like the 15 pro’s and the 16 pro’s will be obsolete in 54 weeks. Everyone who wants to use apples ai to its full potential will need to buy a 17 pro, and even that will only have 12gb of ram. Who knows how many years they’ll stick to that before moving to 16 as Google already has.

Nothing wrong with a little headroom, and it looks like the days of iPhones lasting 6/7/8 years are over. Do you think a 15 or 16 pro max will be usable in a few years?

Apple is just being cheap and greedy, at this point it’s safe to say that Android is faster, smoother, and less laggy than iOS. My flagship top of the line 15 pro max was throttled down to about 1 frame per second recently on a warm day, it’s actually quite pathetic honestly. I expect more from a flagship device marketed as a professional tool.
 
  • Sad
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: I7guy, rmadsen3 and 9081094
Tagbert said:
We had design-led engineering and it got us laptops with too much heat and too few ports. I am glad we are in a more functional phase now where the prod devices are faster and have plenty of ports and plenty of battery. The Air is still there for the thin, light, and limited ports needs.
Click to expand...
This is not zero-sum. Offering “Pro” features in compact form factor does not preclude offering “Pro” features, more ports and bigger batteries in bulky devices for those who want them.
 
lewchenko said:
Heard this a lot but it’s not exactly true. Apple would have you believe that their memory is special, sprinkled with pixie dust .. but it’s not.

It’s all about how aggressive the OS pages your apps & stuff in memory to disk / storage & how they are recovered. This is noticed most say when you go back to a safari tab , and it has to reload the page. Android has its fair share of memory management issues too (Samsung is notorious for being too aggressive on app paging).

But nobody can deny the benefits of having more ram. Apple has hidden this spec from customers so they don’t have to compete with it , and ultimately give you less for your $.

Also , Large language AI models take up the same amount of space on both Apple and Android phones. A 3GB model will likely run say on the Pixel 9 Pro with its 16GB memory, but probably not on an iPhone with 8GB as not enough left.

And as iPhone 15 users will find out, … not enough RAM to run any local AI.

I doubt an 8GB phone will age well (AI in 4-5?years for example), and that is disappointing considering their Android competitors are now offering 16GB for the same or less money.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for this honest explanation. I think Apple is doing this on purpose and is counting on its loyal users. As for design and incremental upgrades each year, there isn’t much to get excited about.

The design hasn’t changed since iPhone 12. The “faster” microprocessor does throttle under load and there are no benefits either. Those meager 8 gb of RAM will not be enough for next year’s capabilities and so next years iPhone wil be the “fastest, best, most innovative” iPhone Apple has ever introduced (according to bean counting Timmy).

I’m wondering how well the iPhone 16 will sell, especially in China.
 
  • Like
  • Sad
Reactions: I7guy and redbeard331
Gotword said:
Majority of people do not care nor want ai features, this is like for people who actually keep predicted text on keyboard on which is few
Click to expand...
So the majority of people buy everything as long as it is Apple?

I’m curious how long Apple can sustain their image as innovative and top quality because in reality they’ve lost that crown for years.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: rmadsen3, UliBaer and redbeard331
HJM.NL said:
So the majority of people buy everything as long as it is Apple?
(...)
Click to expand...
blender.jpg
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Chuckeee and 9081094
HJM.NL said:
So the majority of people buy everything as long as it is Apple?

I’m curious how long Apple can sustain their image as innovative and top quality because in reality they’ve lost that crown for years.
Click to expand...
You forgot to tell that to the 600,000+ customers that bought an iPhone daily.

www.zdnet.com

How many iPhones did Apple sell every second?

Hint -- a lot.
www.zdnet.com www.zdnet.com
 
  • Love
Reactions: heretiq
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back